Drekk is forced to flee north, along the roads he knows best where he encounters a vagrant woman named Nala. He befriends the girl as they travel north towards Kara-Kum, and finds that the long years of lonliness that have marked his life are assuaged by the company of this strange and beatutiful waif of the desert. Drekk soon learns that the woman has fled the company of monks, who seem to be silently stalking them now, intent on recovering their lost charge. After he is separated from the girl, he pledges himself to find her again, and is aided in his quest by the amiable person of the monk Chen Hu.

Drekk’s emerging love for Nala leads him eventually to the heart of one of the greatest secrets of his time.

EXCERPT - From Chapter 27 - Ill At Ease

Drekk Contemplates Nala and wonders about her fate...and the strange effect she seems to have on him.

What are you still hiding, he wondered? What else is there about these monks that you have not yet told? Why were you with them? Where were they going? What was it they carried with them in that golden box you spoke of? And where are they now? Surely you were important to them, yes? Why would monks be so interested in a woman anyway? Did they harm you? Is that why you ran from them—why you fled into the desert? Or did they cast you away?

 One question led to another in his mind as he watched her, but he did not try to pull the answers from her. His hand rested now on the side of her face; his touch gentle and unselfish, seeking nothing for himself but wanting only to give some small measure of comfort. He was a rough-hewn man and had known little affection in his life. Still, something inside him grew quiet in the presence of this woman, and calmed the restlessness of his own heart. Something grew soft in him at her approach. The sight of her tears drew a strand of feeling from him that he had not known since he looked on the sad, quiet face of his dying mother, so many long years ago.

 “Let us sleep now,” he whispered to her. “The night is cold, and…You bring me warmth…” The words tumbled awkwardly from him now, but Nala understood.

 “And you,” she said, looking up at him now. “With you I am safe again, and I thank you.” This time Drekk was not asleep when she leaned close and brushed her lips against the side of his neck, holding him close. No one had touched him that way for many years. He had grown so accustomed to standing alone in the world that he almost forgot how nurturing the simple touch of another could be.

 They huddled together for a while, then slipped down to their bed of desert reeds, folding into one another’s arms and shutting away the night. He watched Nala’s face for a moment after she had closed her eyes to sleep, her breath coming softly on his cheek. Drekk wondered for a moment where he was going now, and what he would do when they reached Kara-Kum. That is a long week or more away, he thought. I must listen to the land for a while before I sleep. He pressed his ear to the ground and waited. The earth seemed to grumble in the distance, but it was just the endless way of the river as it labored south. All else seemed quiet and undisturbed. Now and again, he caught the sound of something moving, faint and far away. Nothing seemed to threaten, and the night was tranquil and silent.

 He resolved to wake again in two hours and listen once more when the moon was high. Then he would decide if this strange, inner warning that had plagued him was real, or only a phantom of his imagination. The only thing he wanted to listen to now was the soft breath of the girl by his side. What was it about this simple moment, so rare in his life, that offered such solace? It was as if he had come out of the desert himself, after much strife and need, and found in this quiet young woman and endless stream of cool, refreshing water—and he wanted to leap into her, immersing himself in her life and forgetting all the cares of the road behind him; forsaking any thought of what might lie ahead. He resisted the impulse to caress her, his hand simply finding a soft place to rest on the gentle curve of her waist. There was something about her that made him yearn, but he did not quite understand how to answer that call just yet, so he resolved to wait.

 Don’t go thinking this woman is yours now, he warned himself. She belongs to the desert, and the night, and a story that remains untold. Better listen first, he decided. There is something here that you have not discovered yet. Listen, then, and listen well.

Taklamakan            The Land of No Return      © 2001, John A. Schettler